The Land Before Time: Tale of a Two-Leg
by Aaron Ledgers
Summary: Kya and Littlefoot have been closer than siblings since the day she arrived from the future with her mother: the two-legs arrived only a few days before the adventurous dinosaur was born, and years after that event they searched for the Great Valley together. Life was boring at times, but everything was peaceful and happy for the two families... until the earthquake hit, that is.
1. Prologue: The End of a Utopia

**Prologue: The End of a Utopia**

Once upon a time, before the ape and the elephant... before the wolf, the bison, and the whale... even before the mastodon... dinosaurs roamed the earth. However, the dinosaurs living in that time period were of two kinds: some had flat teeth to eat the leaves of trees, and some had sharp teeth for eating meat... and they preyed upon the leaf-eaters. Then it happened that the leaves began to die: the mighty beasts that had appeared to rule the earth were actually ruled by the leaf. Desperate for food, some of the dinosaur herds struck out toward the west, searching for their great valley... which was a land that would always remain lush and green.

It was a journey toward life... spurred by the will to continue living.

It was a dangerous attempt: sharp-teeth stalked the herds, waiting to seize any who strayed.

However, I'm getting ahead of myself... because our story actually begins with a world that came to an end, not one that was just beginning.

In the year 2788, almost a thousand years after the twenty-first century, humanity had already discovered a multitude of things about the world around them: the first and foremost being the fact that some intelligent mythological beings really existed. With the development of society and the cutting of forests where many creatures used to hide, many of the world's seemingly non-existent creatures and beings came out into the open and caused an outcry by suggesting that they adapt to human society. Many beings who were believed to be no more than common myths for thousands of years came out in what came to be known as 'the Mass Plea.'

After almost three hundred years of dispute among mankind, it was decided that these creatures could join humanity as long as they followed all morals and civil laws. There wasn't a single negative incident after that day in humanity's future... until an unexpected asteroid slammed into the earth and destroyed everything that humanity, demons, and angels alike had all created together. Among the chaos that ensued was a family of angels: a man and woman who had devoted their time to the ways of science, and their infant daughter, Kyalliara.

A daughter who just so happens to be the heroine of this tale...

**TXXXXXT**

_"Alex, take Kyalliara and run to the portal!" a winged man wearing a white lab coat roared, pulling on his wife's frail arms and violently jerking her towards their backyard: the woman's sky blue eyes were full of terror, for all around them were the screams of people she had known since childhood. The blue sky had turned red and the clouds had dispersed with the impact of the meteor that had slammed into the ocean: already, the distant rumbling of the killer tsunami vibrated the concrete of her suburban street. _

_Her sun-streaked brown hair flashed like fire in the red glow raining down from above as she was dragged toward her only escape._

_"I can't run anymore!" the woman wailed, shaking her head as tears dripped off her chin. "We'll never make it in time!"_

_"We have to! For our daughter's sake!" the man snapped, bolting towards his backyard: sirens were futilely blaring the end of the world, trying to warn people to take cover when there was no cover to be had. There was nowhere to run or hide, for the planet itself was the cause of the coming destruction. A fierce wind was already shredding the roofs of the houses and tearing things down, sending the scent of ocean salt flying everywhere: families were clustered together in groups, praying with each other and crying as they looked upon their loved ones; husbands and wives were staring into each others eyes and holding each other tightly, refusing to give up their love even in the face of death; children were looking around with eyes full of fear and confusion, for most of them didn't or couldn't understand what was really happening. Among this twisted chaos were Alexandria and Cyler Wintersong, a young couple who possessed a mild ability to control the elements on top of communicating with animals. _

_However, the wave was coming… and it was coming fast: no amount of supernatural power could stop it._

_"How do you even know if this will work?!" Alexandria shrieked when Cyler thrust her into the center of the glyphs that had been etched into the concrete. "There's no way to tell where we'll end up! We don't even know whether we'll end up in a place we can breathe in! What if we get sent to another planet entirely?!"_

_"We have to try, Alex! Our kind has to survive somehow!" Cyler retorted, flashing her a glare with his deep crimson eyes; the woman blinked when he sat down and started chanting in the language of Angels and Demons. His chanting grew in pitch and velocity until, at the very peak of its timbre, the ocean rose above them and roared across the heavens. Alexandria's arctic blue eyes widened in horror and disbelief as she beheld the destructive force that had been caused by the meteor; she immediately __clutched her baby close to her chest. She couldn't even believe that this killer wave had actually been caused by a rock _the size of a tiny farmhouse. 

_Cyler finally opened his eyes and lifted his large hand, touching her face even as tears began filling his eyes. _

_Then he leaned forward and kissed his wife before pressing another kiss against his sleeping child's forehead. _

_"I was only able to finish three quarters of the incantation," he croaked, smiling brokenly as the wave shredded the beginnings of their neighborhood. "It's too late... only two of us can escape, Alexa… but I hope that, someday, God will let our souls meet again."_

_"Cyler, don't…" Alex whispered, eyes widening when he lifted his arms and tilted his head back. "DON'T! PLEASE!"_

_"I pray to the Guardian of Heaven," the man stated loudly, eyes flashing with light. "Save my family, the ones I love the most!"_

_"CYLER, STOP!" Alexandria shrieked, lunging forward and trying to get out of the protective circle: however, it was too late because a blue light engulfed her body and she froze in place. She could see Cyler smiling gently, but the woman felt tears streaming down her face when she realized that her husband was going to die alone. _

_"I love you, Alexandria Wintersong," the winged man whispered, closing his eyes. "Take care of our child. "_

_"CYYYYYYYYLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!" Alexandria shrieked, eyes large with agony and sickening fright._

_Then he was gone forever, and all she could see was a wall of water; not even a second later, darkness claimed her mind... and when she came to, Alexa and her crying daughter were surrounded by dinosaurs who were staring down at her with curious eyes. The woman immediately squealed and clutched her daughter close to her chest in case they proved to be hostile, but after a moment of lying there and watching the group of reptilian animals stare down at her, she decided to try her luck and spoke._

_"W-where am I...?" Alexandria whispered, slowly sitting up and staring at the group of dinosaurs._

_"You fell out of the sky and landed in our herd," a female dinosaur with an extremely long neck replied in a gentle tone, lowering her head and staring straight into Alex's face with a large and curious eye. "I don't believe I've ever seen one of your kind before... you have odd-looking skin. What kind of leaf-eater are you?"_

_"U-uh..." the woman stammered, shivering violently as she fought for an explanation, "w-w-well, I'm an angel..."_

_"A... ayen-jel..." a stegosaurus muttered, sounding out the words; however, when Alexandria stood up and looked at all of them with her wings folded behind her back, every single one of the dinosaurs stepped away from her. "You... you're standing on your hind legs! How are you doing that?!"_

_"Uh... this is how my kind walks..." the woman whispered, closing her eyes as tears began streaming down them; within seconds, she was crying hysterically. "I... I'm sorry... I just lost my husband, my home, and everyone I know because of... something bad... so... I'm sorry..."_

_"There, there..." the female long-neck murmured, gently nudging the crying woman with her head. "We all know how it feels to lose someone important... and since we're trying to find our home, as well, you're welcome to join our herd if you'd like. We're all looking for the great valley, but we've stopped because my egg is about to hatch... my child could be born at any time now, and he's our only hope for the future. By the way... what's your individual name, little two-leg? Mine is Slender-Tail."_

_"My name is Alexandria," the angel sniffed, then looked down at her sleeping daughter and brushed the hair out of her eyes. "This is my child, Kyalliara."_

_"Aleshantria... and Kyalliara," Slender-Tail murmured awkwardly, smiling in a very odd-looking way; Alex immediately considered herself to be lucky, since she would have been at a complete loss without her hereditary ability to communicate with all living things. "Well, strange-looking as you may be, welcome to the herd... although... would you be opposed to climbing up on my back and resting there? You're so unbelievably small that I'm afraid you might get stepped on if you're not careful."_

_"Okay..." Alex sniffled, rubbing her eyes before she flexed her back muscles and fanned her explosive white wings: with one leap into the air, the woman took off and flapped up to the dinosaur's back, long white robes billowing around as she landed. After sitting down and cradling her swaddled two-year-old daughter with careful arms, Alexandria buried her face in her child's blankets and continued crying for several hours. The herd, on the other hand, had accepted the young mother with only a little curious speculation. Days began to pass as the group of dinosaurs waited, and by that time, Kya... a two-year-old baby who thoroughly amused most of the dinosaurs... had become hungry. _

_However, on the third evening of waiting, the eggs began to hatch. _

_Alex woke up to find that her daughter had crawled away somewhere while she'd been sleeping, but on top of that, the entire herd was awake and seemingly buzzing with joy. The woman's eyes widened when she saw baby dinosaurs of every variety running around their parents, even as it started raining. Alex immediately looked up and squeaked, since the downpour was way more extreme and sudden compared to anything in the future: she immediately ran over to Slender-Tail and hid beneath her body. _

_Around that moment, another dinosaur tried to snatch Slender-Tail's egg, and the resulting flurry of chaos caused it to go over the edge of a small alcove._

_Kya, merely two years old at the time, had been crawling around in a dry area when she'd been surrounded by curious dinosaur babies. _

_However, all of the other infants took off when the egg somehow landed right beside her with cracks adorning its frame. The little girl looked at it with big, curious blue eyes before she touched it with tiny fingers; almost instantly, two little feet kicked off the shell near the top of the egg and a tiny tail poked out of it. Slender-Tail and Alex both arrived at the scene in time to see the egg hatching next to Kyalliara, who was giggling loudly as she poked the wiggling tail. Eventually, the baby dinosaur managed to get the shell off, but he was upside down and staring at the world with a very confused and sleepy expression. Slender-Tail giggled when he slowly tilted head over heels and did an adorable somersault: Kya squealed with laughter when he made an adorable squeaking noise and blinked at her with large eyes._

_When she touched his face, he squeaked before drawing back; then he timidly poked his head out towards her and sniffed._

_"Here I am," Slender-Tail murmured in a gentle voice, leaning down with a motherly smile; however, when her baby looked up and saw her, his eyes widened and he fell over onto Kya's little lap before covering his head. Regardless, when his mother started licking his back, he warmed up to her right away and licked her nose. Alex watched with a solemn expression as Slender-Tail nuzzled her baby; he clung to her face like a cat would and continued licking her nose. She never would have believed she could become friends with a dinosaur._

_Yet, here she was: at the expense of her husband's life, she had been able to do this. _

_However, when other baby dinosaurs began to show up with curious eyes, Slender-Tail's child tried to crawl away; Kya made it a habit of crawling after him._

_"Don't be frightened," his mother giggled when he hid behind her leg and ran out into the open; when he tripped, she lifted him up and set him on her back... but he instantly made himself at home by squeaking at her and letting out a yawn. Everyone watched as the baby curled up in the skin on her back and fell asleep, but the eyes of the one he was sleeping on softened in a manner that only a new mother could understand. "My beautiful Littlefoot..." _

_"Slender-Tail?" Alex asked, flapping her wings and soaring up to the dinosaur woman's head. "Would it be all right if we made a promise to each other?"_

_"A promise?" the dinosaur inquired, staring at her when she leapt away and flapped right in front of her nose. "What for?"_

_"I'd like you and your family to promise that you'll do your best to take care of Kyalliara if something ever happens to me," the woman replied, looking out at the sunset with haunted blue eyes. "I don't know about the dangers in this place aside from the Tyrannosaurus, but I swear... I'll try my best to make a life with all of you."_

_"You have my word that we'll take care of your little one if something ever happens," Littlefoot's grandmother assured. "You didn't even need to ask."_

_"Thank you," Alex sniffled, shaking her head and rubbing her eyes. "Thank you so much..."_

**TXXXXXT**

And so it was that the years began to pass: every now and then, the herd would come across food and water, but otherwise the land was barren. However, whenever things got bad and the long-necks got hungry, Alex would struggle to grow fruits and vegetables with her powers, using the seeds she had managed to salvage as a way of starting the plants off. However, growing healthy food took time, and time was something they didn't have to spare in such dangerous terrain.

So, they used her talents to grow food a last resort; water, on the other hand, was easier since all the woman had to do was draw it out of the air with her mind.

Eventually, twelve years had gone by and Alexandria had long-since become a part of Slender-Tail's family: Littlefoot and Kyalliara had gotten along great since the two of them had first met as babies, but now the male dinosaur was so big that his back was completely level with Kya's shoulders. The girl's wings wouldn't grow out until she was at least sixteen years old, so she couldn't fly yet... but because of that, Littlefoot always carried her on his back: the two of them were honestly like siblings.

Alex and Slender-Tail had become close over the years, as well: the two mothers shared several things in common, species set aside.

They had both lost their husbands, they didn't have a home, and they both loved to tell stories. Slender-Tail in particular marveled at the tales that Alex would tell her whenever they were traveling, tales of the place she had come from and all of its marvels. She had described many things over the years, from cars and planes to science, electricity, and all of the other amazing things that the future would hold. And this, my friends... is where our tale begins: in the Land Before Time, with an angel from the future and a dinosaur from the past. This is the story of Littlefoot and Kyalliara: the twelve-year-old 'Long-Neck' and the fourteen-year-old 'Two-Leg.'

It is a tale of how one brother and sister of different species managed to survive horrible odds by sticking together.

And this, my friends, is where our incredible story began.


	2. Chapter 1: Three Horns and Sharp Teeth

**Chapter One: Tree Stars, Three Horns, and Sharpteeth - Oh, My!**

Kyalliara Wintersong tilted her head back as a chilly breeze swept throughout the dead forest, closing her eyes and reveling in the scents of the earth around her.

Even though she was sitting on her brother's back, the girl couldn't wait for the day that she would grow her wings and fly for the first time. She was longing for the day she would be able to help her birth mother, who had flown ahead alone in order to look for food that usually wasn't there. Kya looked almost exactly like her mother aside from her hair and height: she had big blue eyes, dark brown hair, and extremely pale skin. However, Kya didn't care about her looks, nor what people thought of them: aside from her height and hair-length, everything about her was plain-looking. Her height didn't want to extend over the five-foot mark, so she was only four-foot-seven... but her glistening hair was almost knee-length.

Not that it mattered very much: according to her mother, there were probably no males of their kind in this time period.

As for her brother Littlefoot's side of the family... they were what her mother called _Brontosauruses_: Long-Necked dinosaurs.

"Mother? Is this all there is to eat?" Littlefoot asked, trying to crunch down on a twig with a determined expression that made Kya giggle. The two of them were really close, but since Kya was a lot smaller than he was, Littlefoot had pretty much made a habit of keeping her as close as possible to him. The dinosaur honestly believed that she would get lost or accidentally hurt herself if she ever left his sight, but Kya didn't really mind his concern all that much.

After all, there was a time that she had felt the same way about him.

"Oh," Slender-Tail sighed, looking more than a little unhappy as she glanced at the two children plodding along behind her. "I'm sorry, my dear... the land has been changing, and that is why we must walk as far as we can each day until we reach the great valley."

"My mom might have have found something for us to eat, just like she did that one time," Kya hesitantly piped up, tapping her brother's neck as he struggled to continue chewing on the twig; he looked like he was having a difficult time of it. "If not, we should just keep our hopes up: she'll never give up, trust me."

"You're right," Littlefoot mumbled, speaking past the soggy bark in his mouth. "Your mom is a hard worker."

_"Both _of our moms are," Kya giggled, patting his neck before resting her cheek against it. "Still... I hope she brings something today. I'm really hungry."

"Littlefoot, Kyalliara, come here!" Slender-Tail suddenly gasped. "Quickly, come here!"

"Whoa!" Kya squeaked, clutching Littlefoot's neck when he took off towards his mother; the tiny girl held onto him until he skidded to a halt.

"Look, children! A tree star!" the dinosaur woman breathed; Kya and Littlefoot both watched as she gripped the leaf with her teeth and pulled it from the branch, causing dew drops to rain and collect in of it: she lowered it towards them and set it on the ground. Kya slid off of Littlefoot's back and padded over before bending over and examining the leaf: according to her mother, there were trees called 'Maples' back where she had come from with much smaller leaves, since the plants there were still very young. The leaves _here_ were a lot bigger than the ones her mother remembered. Littlefoot also looked at the leaf, inspecting it with curious eyes.

"A tree star," he murmured, rubbing his neck on it before rolling over onto his back and kicking it in the air: Kya watched as the enormous leaf flew up and then came back down like a quilt her mother had once made. "It smells really good, Mother! Thank you!"

"It'll help you grow up strong," Slender-Tail murmured, glancing at her parents with happy eyes. "Where we're going, there are lots of leaves like this."

"Really?" Kya asked, looking up at Littlefoot's mother in surprise. "How many is a lot?"

"Well, the great valley is _full_ of green food like this—more than you could ever eat... and there's enough fresh water for everyone," Slender-Tail sighed, watching as her son hesitantly licked the maple leaf. "It is a wonderful, beautiful place where we can all live happily with more of our own kind."

"Do you think there could be more of _my_ kind there?" Kya asked, looking up at the dinosaur with solemn blue eyes. "You know, people like me and Mom...?"

"Perhaps," Slender-Tail murmured, smiling before she lowered her neck and nuzzled the girl. "However, even if there aren't... you and your mother will always be a part of our family and herd. Come along, now, children... Kya's mother should be on her way back from food-hunting very soon."

"Gee..." Littlefoot murmured, crouching down and looking at Kya until she climbed up onto his back once again. "When will we get there, Mother?"

"The bright circle must pass over us many times," the dinosaur explained, "and we must follow it each day to where it touches the ground."

"Have you ever seen the great valley?" Littlefoot asked; his mother instantly swung her head around to look at him.

"No," she murmured, looking at him with soft brown eyes.

"Then how do you know it's really there?" Littlefoot inquired, plodding forward a little and looking at her in confusion. "I don't get it."

"Some things you see with your eyes," Slender-Tail sighed, smiling in a gentle manner as she looked at Kya and her son. "Others, you see with your heart."

"I don't understand, Mother," Littlefoot sighed, dropping the leaf and hanging his head.

"You will, my son," the dinosaur murmured, nuzzling his cheek; then she licked Kya's face and smiled when the girl giggled. Kya wiped her cheeks off and watched as her surrogate mother turned around with a smile on her face. "You _both_ will... someday."

"I wonder when my Mama's coming back," Kya sighed, swinging her legs and staring up at the sky again. "Do you think she found food this time?"

"Maybe," Littlefoot murmured, sniffing the tree star with a reverent expression; he was just about to take a bite out of it when the sound of nearby laughter hit both adolescents. Littlefoot and Kya both turned their heads as the laughter continued, but the two-legged girl let out a squeak when her four-legged brother started off towards the sound. She immediately clamped her hands around his thick neck, startled by his abrupt sprint forward.

"Where are we going?" Kya asked, trying not to bite her tongue when he jumped into a patch of grass.

"We're going to find whoever's laughing and see if they want to play with us!" her brother whispered back. "It's been so long since we've had a new friend!"

"Littlefoot, Kyalliara, don't you wander too far," Slender-Tail called from behind.

"We won't!" the tiny brunette called back. "Promise!"

However, when her brother stuck his head out of the grass and froze, the girl peered around his neck: the sight that met her eyes was actually pretty cute. A young triceratops—a three-horn, as Littlefoot's family called them—was charging at her mother and repeatedly bopping her on the snout with no result. Her parents looked rather amused by the spirited attempts, but when a stinkbug flew past her face, she lost interest in her mother and chased after it. Littlefoot and Kya both watched as she demolished different things in her attempt to capture the bug, and eventually she caught up to it: she was just about to pounce when it squirted some sort of purple liquid that hit her clean in the face. When she shook her head in startled surprise, Kyalliara and Littlefoot burst into a fit of hysterical laughter.

"What are you laughing at?!" the three-horn snapped, cutting off their laughter; the moment Littlefoot saw that she was pawing at the ground and getting ready to charge at them, he gasped and leapt out of the bushes. Kyalliara was thrown against his neck by the momentum of the boy's jump and shrieked, arms snapping around his throat in an attempt to stay on his back. Once she had caught her balance, the tiny brunette glanced forward just in time to see the triceratops girl took off with a squeal.

Then Littlefoot leapt forward a second time, wrenching Kya's body backwards and almost breaking her hold.

"What are you doing?!" the girl cried, flailing her legs as he charged at the three-horn; just before the two of them collided, her father leapt in front of Littlefoot with a thud that shook the earth. Kyalliara immediately let out a shriek and squeezed her eyes shut when her brother skidded to a halt: he was growling at the two of them. Kya swallowed and huddled down on Littlefoot's back, trying to make herself as small as possible: similarly, her brother huddled down and looked up at him with large eyes.

"Littlefoot! Kya!" Slender-Tail called.

"Come, Cera," the triceratops growled, looking down at Kya and Littlefoot with condescending eyes. "Three-Horns _never_ play with _Long-Necks."_

"Yeah," the girl repeated, charging forward and forcing Kya's brother to back away. "Three-Horns _never_ play with _Long-Necks!"_

Before anything else could be said, Slender-Tail grabbed her son by the tail and lifted him into the air; Kya squeaked as her balance shifted and immediately gripped her brother's neck, shakily allowing her legs to swing off his back and dangle down in front of his chest. She was pretty much just hanging in the air by her arms now, but the girl had gotten used to things like this happening over the years: usually, she simply endured it until Slender-Tail decided to put the two of them back down.

"Long-Neck?" Littlefoot mumbled in a pondering tone, bringing his head around and supporting Kya's feet with it. "Mother, what's a long-neck?"

"Why, that's what we are, dear," Slender-Tail kindly replied, giggling when Kya used the leverage that Littlefoot had given her to climb up his body; when the girl made her way up to the female Brontosaurus's head and was resting safely between her eyes, Littlefoot climbed up as well and and helped her climb right up onto his back: the two of them rarely ever left each other's sides, so coming up with creative ways to get around impossible situations had become an everyday thing for them.

"Oh," Littlefoot mumbled, then looked at Kya with speculative eyes. "Well, why can't I play with that three-horn? We were having fun."

"Well, we all keep to our own kind," his mother explained, walking through the dead forest with an easy expression on her face. "The Three-Horns, the Spike-Tails, the Swimmers, and the flyers... we never do anything together."

"Why?" Littlefoot asked.

"Because we're different," Slender-Tail murmured, heading towards the fiery sunset, "It's always been that way."

"Well, why?" Littlefoot persisted, glancing at Kya again. "I mean, my sister and her mom are both Two-Legs, and I can play with them... they're different, right?"

"Kya and her mother are special, dear: don't worry about it so much," the elder dinosaur giggled. "There will be many, many Long-Necks to play with."

"I wish we were there now," Littlefoot sighed, settling down on his mother's back.

"Well, it's a long way yet," Slender-Tail told him, voice becoming quiet in a motherly way that soothed Kya's nerves. "We must go past the great rock that looks like a Long-Neck and past the mountains that burn. Still a long way, but we'll get there."

After that, the siblings became quiet: Littlefoot's grandparents followed Slender-Tail's path with easy movements, but everyone was beginning to notice that Alexandria was really late on returning. However, their fears were soothed when the winged woman swooped down towards them just after sunset: she landed on Slender-Tails back and immediately sat down before happily unzipping the backpack that she had brought to the past twelve years ago.

"I found some ripe fruit and a few withered leaves," the woman gushed, breathing heavily as her blue eyes sparkled with triumph. "However, I ran into a Sharp-Tooth while I was foraging and had to leave prematurely since he came after me! I swear, I've never flown faster than I did trying to get back to you guys. I was foraging quite a distance from here, so there's probably nothing for us to worry about. I found enough food to last us three whole days, so we can all relax for a while."

"It's good that you weren't hurt, Alex," Slender-Tail murmured, slowly swiveling her head around in order to look at the woman. "Sharp-teeth are dangerous."

"Trust me, that much I know," the woman whispered, shivering violently before closed her pack. "Whenever we stop for the night, we can eat supper!"

"Will you make more of the warm light?!" Littlefoot squeaked, instantly jumping up and sliding down his mother's neck towards the angel. "More of the warm burning light?"

"Yes, I'll make us a campfire," Alexandria confirmed, smiling as she patted his neck; then she paused for a second. "Wow... did you get bigger while I was gone?"

"Uh... I don't think so," Littlefoot replied, blinking before he looked down at himself. "Er... did I?"

"I'm only kidding," Alex laughed, then turned her eyes on her daughter. "I'm back, sweetheart... how was your day?"

"It was eventful, to say the least," Kya casually explained, sliding off of Littlefoot's back in order to hug the woman. "We found a huge Maple leaf, and then we had a pretty scary run-in with a triceratops family, but other than that it was pretty normal."

"Sounds like it was interesting!" the woman happily explained. "Don't worry, we'll be eating good tonight! I actually managed to stumble across a dying grove of plum, pear, and apple trees, so I healed them as much as possible and used my powers to grow us some fresh fruit! They're absolutely enormous and delicious, so we'll all be fine for the next few days as far as food goes! I have at least sixty of them tucked inside my bag, as well as all the leaves as I could gather! Don't you worry about being hungry!"

"I guess being a scientist in the old world really did come in handy!" Kya giggled, smiling at her mother. "I wish I could be like you..."

"Well, I have at thirty-five different journals that I'm planning on giving to you sometime soon," Alex pondered with a shrug. "If you read them, you'll know almost everything that I do... and plus, I taught you everything that I could think of from the old world, so you're pretty much on the same level as me now."

"I love you, Mama," Kya sighed, hugging the woman and burying her face in the clothes she'd made. "Welcome home."

**TXXXXXT**

Later that night, long after everyone had eaten and fallen asleep, Littlefoot was unexpectedly jolted awake by a frog that hopped directly on top of his nose: Kya normally curled up against his belly for warmth, and since her mother usually slept near Slender-Tail's head to tell stories about the old world, it was a smart move. However, because she was sleeping against him, the twitch that went through his body woke her up as well: the girl sat up and sleepily rubbed her eyes before glancing around. Then she saw her reptilian brother staring at the toad on his snout with large eyes and joined in; both of them let out a squeak when it croaked and hopped clean over his head.

"H-hey!" Littlefoot called, instantly getting to his feet. "Hey, Hopper, come back!"

"Wait, don't leave me here!" Kya stammered, getting to her feet as well before scurrying over to his tail and climbing up to his back. Her unbound hair slid across his leathery skin and hung loosely on either side of him when she sat down, and every puff of air sent tendrils of it going in all directions: there wasn't exactly any time to tie it into a bun like she usually did, so she merely pulled it back and then left it alone. Kya sleepily wrapped her skinny arms around Littlefoot's neck and clung to him like a monkey when he began to move, tiredly pressing her cheek against his spine: soon afterwards, she closed her eyes and things were quiet... until a very familiar voice split the air.

_"You_ again?" a snarky voice asked, making the brunette jump in surprise. "Go away! That's _my_ hopper!"

When Kya peered around Littlefoot's neck, she saw Cera, the three-horn from earlier, giving her brother the snootiest version of the stink-eye she'd ever seen; the male brontosaurus shook his head in disbelief before sharing a confused glance with Kya, who merely shrugged with an expression that clearly said '_I have no idea.'_

"I saw him first," Littlefoot calmly pointed out.

"Yeah, but he lives in _my_ pond," Cera haughtily retorted, tipping her nose up as she swaggered out of sight. Kya wordlessly rollied her eyes when Littlefoot plodded forward, but both of them gawked when the triceratops slid down the hill and splashed into the water. Unfortunately, Littlefoot stepped too far lost his footing: Kya shrieked when they unexpectedly went sliding down the hill and splashed into the hot spring. The brunette shrieked even louder when she went flying over her brother's head, due to the fact that he crashed into straight Cera and face-planted into the pond. The angel flipped once... twice... then landed in the water with an unflattering splash. She instantly started spluttering, trying to figure out why everything had gone dark, but the she realized her hair was in her eyes and parted it like a curtain.

After looking down at her wet clothes, she glanced at Cera to see that the three-horn was staring at her with narrowed eyes.

"What are _you?"_ she demanded, keeping a careful distance. "I've never seen anything like _you_ before!"

"Me?" Kya asked, cocking an amused eyebrow before she stood up and planted her hands on her hips. "As you can see, I'm a Two-Leg! Got a problem with it?"

"You're standing on your hind legs!" Cera squealed, backing up until she crashed into Littlefoot; when he spluttered, she immediately turned to glare at him.

"Kyalliara is a part of my family," he explained when Cera cast Kya another uneasy glance. "Two-legs are really small, though, so she always stays with me."

"She looks weird," Cera snorted, eyeing the tiny girl from head to toe before coming closer and inspecting her long hair. "What's all that brown stuff?"

"Uh, it's my hair," Kya hesitantly explained, pulling her sopping tresses back into a ponytail and tying them using the ribbon she always kept in her pocket: her mother had given her some old clothes from the old world once she'd gotten big enough to wear them, but up until that point, she had pretty much walked around in the nude. She preferred wearing clothes now that she knew how comfortable, warm, and soft they were... but up until last year, she hadn't even owned a set of her own underwear.

"Hair?" Cera asked, cocking her head as she gawked at the girl's outlandish appearance. "What's that?"

"Let's just call it my _really_ soft fur, shall we?" Kya sighed, not really knowing how to explain the concept; Cera apparently lost interest in her once it was explained that she wasn't a threat, and after that she and Littlefoot started jumping on the enormous bubbles that began to rise from the pond. However, Kya frowned when she noticed that the hot-springs were doing something strange: instead of being pleasantly warm and steamy like usual, all of the deeper pools father in were practically boiling.

In fact, the water that Kya was standing in felt _way_ warmer than it should have.

"I wonder why...?" she murmured, looking up at Cera and her brother as they continued to jump on the rising bubbles; however, the fourteen-year-old lost her interest in the abnormally hot springs and joined the two of them in popping the bubbles. She let out a squeak whenever one got really big, and eventually Littlefoot was laughing like a hyena. Even Cera seemed to be enjoying herself after a while, and that actually came as a surprise to both of them.

"Hey, this is fun!" the three-horn exclaimed, popping a bubble and laughing loudly.

"It really is!" Kya giggled, jumping on a bubble with a splash and squealing when it popped; the other two instantly burst into laughter and chased her as she ran under the dead tree lying in the middle of pond. All three of them continued splashing around and having a good time until the ground started shaking in a rhythmic manner and a huge shadow fell over them: Kya looked up and gasped a split second before the other two did the same... but when they saw it, the brunette shrieked at the top of her lungs.

Cera and Littlefoot screamed only a split second later, and three sets of eyes went wide with terror.

"Sharptooth!" the triceratops wailed, bolting towards the hill. "RUN!"

"MOMMY!" Kya wailed, sprinting after her with Littlefoot close behind; all three of them began screaming for their parents as the flesh-eating dinosaur thundered after them with a roar. Unfortunately, Kyalliara wasn't as fast as her brother, and the brontosaurus smacked her out of the way using his head when the T-Rex tried to snatch her off the ground. The girl instantly went flying forward and crashed into Cera, letting out a high-pitched screech when the three-horned girl rolled over on her back and spun around in the water with Kya on her belly. Both females screamed and floundered out of the way when the monster snapped at them: however, just before the predator's muzzle crashed into the ground, they rolled out of reach and scrambled after Littlefoot, who was sprinting towards a grove of Thorny trees.

Once the trio had made it to the safety of the branches, they huddled down in a shaky attempt to hide.

Cera frantically glanced at Littlefoot and Kya, panting in terror as the huge flesh-eater stomped over and started sniffing around. When the monster started to make its way down through a gap in the thorny trees and tried to sniff them out, all three adolescents backed up with muffled sounds of terror. Just as they were about to run, Kya halted both of them by dropping to the ground and covering her head beneath a huge vine: the other two took the hint and did the same only a split second before the Tyrannosaurus's muzzle sniffed its way onto them. The vine pressed them into the ground only a split second before the monster's hot breath assaulted them.

Kya froze like a statue and prayed the way her mother had taught her to do in times like this.

Then the snuffling was gone.

"Let's go..." Littlefoot whispered, looking at the two girls with large eyes; the three of them then began to make their way along the thorny path. "This way!"

"Nuh-uh!" Cera fearfully retorted, bolting in another direction entirely.

"Wait, stop!" Kya squealed, blue eyes widening in horror. "Don't go that way! It's a dead end that loops back around!"

"Come back!" Littlefoot cried, kneeling down so Kya could climb onto his back; once she had scrambled up, he chased after her. "You're going the wrong way!"

Kya glanced over her shoulder when the deafening thuds grew more rapid, but she let out a hysterical screech when she saw the T-Rex lunging at them.

The teenager immediately lowered her head with a scream just as the huge reptile hit the ground not even a foot behind them and tried to snap them up; fortunately, it's attack missed and they got away unharmed. By that point they were screaming again, which pretty much gave away their location: Kya's heart nearly stopped when she, Cera, and Littlefoot were all thrown to the ground by a huge roar a split second later, and when the monster leapt at them, she expected to die right then and there.

Just before the 'sharp-tooth' got them, a huge tail smashed the flesh-eating dinosaur clean in the face and knocked it into a huge rock.

"Mother?!" Littlefoot cried, looking up at his mother with huge eyes.

"Run! Run!" the female brontosaurus cried, nudging him and Kya in the opposite direction just as Alexandria flew past her head with an angry screech. Lifting her arms high above her head, the angel conjured several ball of fire by heating up the air and sent them flying at the Tyrannosaurus Rex. However, the angel woman cried out in shock and flapped her wings with a huge flurry, shooting towards the sky on a split second before the dinosaur snapped its jaws on her. Then the monster turned on Slender-Tail, snapping at her with a savage roar and attempting to bite her. Littlefoot's mother reared back just in time and kicked her legs with a roar of her own.

"Look out!" Littlefoot cried, wrapping his neck around Cera and Kya in order to push them out from beneath his mother's feet; the female let out a dangerous hiss and swiped at the T-Rex with her tail yet again, sending it flying into a wall. However, it simply got right back up despite the fact that Alexandria sent ice shards and lightning balls raining down on it from her spot high in the air: the woman was frantically throwing all of her powers out into the open.

However, she couldn't seem to make her abilities any more powerful.

Kya, Littlefoot, and Cera stumbled over to an outcropping of rocks and watched as Littlefoot's mother dodged death by mere centimeters. She continued to ward the predator away with jaw-shattering blows from her tail; likewise, Alexandria continued her assault from up in the air, trying her hardest to do the most damage in order to protect the ones around her. Finally, it happened: Slender-Tail managed to land a crushing blow on the monster's jaw, sending it stumbling off the edge of a huge cliff.

When she, Alex, and the children had all made it to safety, they stopped and caught their breath.

Alexandria instantly dropped down from the sky and tackled her daughter to the ground in a hug.

"Are you okay?!" she cried, looking into her child's stricken blue eyes; Kya nodded, but burst into tears and buried her face in her mother's shoulder.

"Mother!" Littlefoot wailed, curling his neck around hers when she bent her head to check on him. "I was so scared! He almost ate us!"

"Why?" Cera whispered, still shaking even though she was now staring at Littlefoot's mother in awe. "You saved me even though I'm a three-horn!"

"Long-Necks may not have anything to do with Three-Horns," Slender-Tail sighed, nuzzling the young triceratops, "but _I_ could never allow a fellow creature to die."

"That's my girl," Alex laughed, breaking down into tears; however, only a moment later, her eyes snapped open again and she went still. Without a word, the young woman sat up and looked at the ground with huge blue eyes, slowly starting to shake all over; similarly, Kya let out a gasp and bolted upright before looking at the ground as well. It felt as though the earth was screaming at the top of its lungs, like a dying child who was being put through prolonged agony: it wasn't so much of a sound as a sensation.

Both angels glanced up at the night sky just as several bright purple flashes lit up the horizon.

It looked like lightning, but at the same time... there were no clouds, and the flashes seemed to be coming from the ground rather than the sky.

"What's that...?" Littlefoot asked, huddling close to his confused-looking mother. "I've never seen bright light like that before..."

Alexandria's face slowly went pale and she said one haunting sentence that made everyone go still.

"Oh, shit..." she whispered, blue eyes going wide in horror. "My friends, we're all about to get hit by a massive earthquake."


	3. Chapter 2: The Big Earthshake

**Chapter Two: Earthquake**

"What's an Earthquake?" Kyalliara asked, looking at her mother with frightened blue eyes. "Mom! What's an Earthquake and why do you think we're going to get hit by one?!"

"I know it's an earthquake because I've seen the same type of light once before, Kya," Alexandria whispered, staring at the flashes of purple light that seemed to be exploding from the ground in the distance. "Three years before you were born, on an Island called Japan in the Old World, I saw some brilliant flashes of violet light far out on the ocean. Within mere minutes of those flashes... we were hit by the quake: the intensity of that catastrophe was so far off the Richter scale that everyone believed they had experienced the Biblical Earthquake described in the book of Revelations. Cities collapsed all over the world, and many islands simply sank into the sea."

"Wait..." Kya whispered, looking at Littlefoot with large eyes before glancing back at her mother. "You mean that kind of thing is about to happen here?!"

"Are you saying that we're about to undergo a big earthshake?!" Slender-Tail gasped, looking extremely alarmed. "Alexandria, what can we do?!"

"All we can do is pray," the woman whispered, holding her daughter close as a distant rumbling began to fill the air: Littlefoot and Cera instantly glanced at the ground before turning and looking towards the flashing lights, the direction that the rumbling was coming from. It honestly sounded like a distant rumble of thunder that continued to grow louder instead of fading away, as though it was building up to the lightning strike instead of fading away after it had flashed in and out of existence. However, unlike the natural fury of thunder and lightning, earthquakes didn't just come to a quick stop once they began... and this one was going to be an earthquake to rival Alex's memories.

When the first jolt shook the ground, the angels were literally wrenched out of each other's arms and thrown three feet into the air: Kya landed right next to Cera, who was cowering down next to Littlefoot; Alexandria landed beside Slender-Tail, who was struggling to keep her balance as the earth violently began to shake beneath their feet. Kya struggled to get up, but her heart lurched when she realized that she couldn't even get on all fours: she instantly flailed around and let out a cry as the earth bucked.

However, when she glanced up, the girl's blue eyes widened: the earth was ripping itself open in a jagged line... right towards her.

"MOM!" the girl screeched, frantically struggling to get to her knees and crawl away; she couldn't even do it because every time she got up the earth jerked her hands and knees out from under her body. Alexandria was on all fours, and her eyes were huge: she held out a hand to her daughter as if she could reach her, but then the earth jolted even more violently and she was sent sprawling face-first onto the ground. She immediately struggled, without much result, to crawl over to Kyalliara.

"KYA!" the woman wailed, shakily holding out her hand yet again. "MOVE, BABY! MOVE!"

"I CAN'T!" the girl angrily shrieked, scratching at the thundering ground with a hysterical cry.

In that moment, it was Littlefoot who saved her: the Brontosaurus snatched the girl by her abnormally long hair and dragged her to safety using his teeth. Cera had already scurried over to the safest-looking spot, but by the time Littlefoot and Kya made it over to her, it wasn't exactly safe anymore. The two of them looked up just in time to see the land their parents were standing on explode outward before collapsing: Slender-Tail staggered in alarm and tried to catch her balance as the ground tilted upright.

Alex was thrown clean into the air when the ground jolted again, but she simply used the opportunity to spread her wings and flapped like a madwoman: once she was fully airborne, the woman gilded over to the female dinosaur and landed on her head, shouting something that only the other female could hear. Kya, Littlefoot, and Cera remained huddled down until a sound caught their attention: the girl's blood instantly froze in her veins, and she slowly looked over her shoulder with stricken eyes when a familiar thudding noise entered her awareness. The Tyrannosaurus was coming after them again... and quickly, too, from the sound of it.

"RUUUUN!" Kya screeched, haphazardly lunging up from the juddering ground and clinging to her brother's neck. Cera and Littlefoot both took off the moment they saw the T-Rex, struggling to run as they fled from the crazed meat-eater who was trying to kill them; Kya merely squeezed her eyes shut and screamed at the top of her lungs. The trio managed to get to the edge of a cliff before they were cornered, but only a split second before the monster snapped them up, the earth exploded with a flash of light.

Kyalliara let out a scream as the ground tilted at an alarming pace: she, Cera, and Littlefoot immediately went sliding towards a deadly-looking chasm, and they barely managed to stop themselves from going over completely. Boulders and rocks the size of basketballs rolled past the three of them as they clung to the shuddering ground; just as Kya was beginning to pull herself up to start climbing, the T-Rex lost its balance and came skidding down towards them. The girl's blue eyes widened and she let out a shriek before lunging onto the monster's tail and clinging to it: she, Cera, and Littlefoot barely managed to keep themselves from being knocked clean over the edge.

However, the cliff was breaking into pieces, and they were pretty much dead if they fell.

"HEEEEEELP!" Cera shrieked, brown eyes wide with terror as she clung to the beast's tail. "DAAAADDDYYYYY!"

"MOTHEEEER!" Littlefoot wailed, struggling to crawl up the monster's tail.

"MOOOOOOOOM!" Kya screeched in terror, high-pitched voice ringing out into the rising cacophony of the night as she kicked her legs: even as she screamed for help, she was trying to find some unknown purchase to help her crawl up the monster's tail like Cera and her brother were already doing. With shaking muscles, the tiny girl finally managed to pull herself up and crawled to all fours; Littlefoot and Cera were almost free, but she wasn't fast enough to keep up with them. Regardless, she had to escape, had to get back to the cliff before she fell to her death: Kya took a deep breath and finally stood up on two feet, swaying violently as she fought to keep her balance.

After taking a deep breath, the teenager sprinted up the creature's spine with her long hair flying and both arms held out for balance.

Littlefoot and Cera had already made it back to the crumbling cliff, but now they were struggling to run up it without slipping into the monster's mouth.

Just as Kyalliara leapt with a hysterical cry, they lost their footing and went skidding toward the T-Rex's gnashing mouth; only a split second before the monster caught them, Littlefoot's mother knocked it off the edge of the chasm with a fierce swipe of her tail before catching all three adolescents in her teeth. She immediately pulled them out of harm's way and set them down on the ground: the moment Cera was safe, she bolted in the direction of her parents with a terrified triceratops bleat.

Littlefoot knelt down and helped Kya struggle onto his back before running ahead of his mother and charging toward his grandparents.

Already, the sound of terrified dinosaurs was beginning to echo from all around as the earth continued to quake. Littlefoot's grandfather slowly bent down to look at the trembling dirt in front of him, but he jerked back with a serpentine hiss when it cracked and an enormous boulder erupted from out of nowhere; a split second later, Littlefoot's grandmother jerked away from another jagged boulder that exploded from the ground and shredded its way above and over her head. The two of them stumbled when the earth beneath them began to break into pieces; then they took off running in the opposite direction, staying close to each others sides.

Alexandria, who was flying in the air, was the first person to see the wave of stone roaring across the countryside.

"Oh, my god..." she whispered, halting in the air and staring with wide eyes as the wave toppled several dinosaurs and continued to shred the land below; she immediately pointed at the wave and shrieked, "everyone, look out! LOOK OUT! It's gonna hit you!"

"EEEEEEK!" Kya squealed, gripping Littlefoot's neck when the dinosaur was unexpectedly lifted into the air and thrown off his feet; the two of them landed side by side, barely able to get back up since the intensity of the natural disaster had only increased. "Littlefoot, what do we do?! I can't get back up!"

"I don't know!" the Brontosaurus wailed. "I can't get up anymore, either!"

"DADDY!" Cera shrieked, charging past them and running towards her parents with hysterical brown eyes; however, she skidded to a halt with a terrified scream when the ground in front of her dropped away with a thunderous crash, and she immediately scurried around and fled in the opposite direction. Not even a three seconds after she turned back, the wave of earth hit her and she went flying into the air: if she hadn't turned back even a second sooner, Cera would have fallen to her death. Kyalliara and Alexandria were living in the time when the continents had first begun to clash... and because they had finally collided, an earthquake unlike any other was ripping the land apart.

Herds were divided.

Families were split in two.

Countless groups of creatures were wiped out.

And among all of this horrific chaos was a frightened angel and her reptilian brother: the two of them watched with horrified eyes as other dinosaurs dropped into the chasm and vanished with the collapsing ground. The earth was shredding itself apart, and cliffs the size of mountains were jolting themselves high into the air; however, when the land beneath Littlefoot and Kya unexpectedly dropped twelve meters and left them momentarily airborne, they screamed in terrified unison until they hit the ground again.

After that horrid fright, the siblings remained motionless: the deafening sounds of shattering stone and shifting earth roared around them.

However, after what seemed like an eternity of mind-numbing terror, everything began to slow and the deafening roar once again faded down to a low rumble. Kya hesitantly lifted her head and peered at the clouds of airborne debris that had exploded into the sky; she frantically rubbed her stinging eyes before sitting up and looking around in a very dazed manner. Littlefoot hesitantly looked up as well, sharing a glance with the girl and glancing at the clearing plumes of dust all around them.

"Cera!" a distant voice called, seeming to be echoing from far away.

"Momma, Daddy!" another voice called back from somewhere much closer; Kya and Littlefoot glanced at Cera before following her gaze and looking up. Across the chasm and at the top of the cliffs that hadn't been there minutes ago, Littlefoot's grandparents and Cera's family were all looking down at them. Cera, Kya, and Littlefoot were on one side of the huge divide; their families were on the other. It was around that moment when Kya noticed she couldn't see Slender-Tail or her mother, Alex, with them.

"Littlefoot," she whispered, touching his flank with scared blue eyes. "I don't see our mothers up there! Where could they be?!"

"I don't know," her brother whispered back, licking her bleeding arm with worried eyes. "Let's go look for them! They might be on our side of the cliff!"

"They were behind us, so let's go look back there," the girl suggested, getting to her feet and dusting her white dress off; the two of them began to search for their missing mothers, but whenever the land was hit with an aftershock, they would freeze up with terrified expressions until the trembling earth had faded again. They searched... and searched... and searched for their parents, but by the time it had gotten dark, they'd had no luck at all in finding out where there mothers were. On top of that, it had also begun to rain... which pretty much meant that the already-unstable terrain was going to become even more treacherous. Kya's long hair and clothes were soon soaking wet.

"Mother?!" Littlefoot called, looking around with squinted eyes as he tried to see through the rain. "Miss Alex! Mother!"

"Mom! Miss Slender-Tail!" Kya shouted, cupping her hands to her mouth in order to send her call farther. "If you guys can hear us, answer!"

However, there was no response other than a bright flash and a clap of thunder; Kya shivered violently and wrapped her arms around herself when Littlefoot continued walking across the devastated terrain. However, she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight when he leapt across a deep chasm in the ground; then he stopped and looked around once again, eyes full of worry and fear. Kyalliara didn't blame him: she was struggling to keep herself from going hysterical with panic.

"Motheeeeer!" Littlefoot shouted, voice echoing out into the rain. "Mother! Miss Alex! Where are you guys?!"

""Littlefoot, where could the be?!" Kya finally wailed, burying her face against his neck. "I'm getting really scared! Do you think they fell and got hurt?"

"Don't worry, we'll find them," the brontosaurus stated in an optimistic tone. "They're probably already looking for us, too!"

However, he couldn't have been more wrong: a feminine groan caught their attention just as another flash of lightning lit up the sky.

The two of them turned just in time to see the shape of a dinosaur lying on a rock with her head hanging partially off of it. Littlefoot let out a gasp and bolted towards her, jerking his sister a bit as he made his way down the rocks; he slipped a few times, but managed to keep his balance. However, Kyalliara's pupils contracted into pinpricks when another flash of lightning illuminated the area, throat locking up and shoulders tensing in horror. Her mother was lying on the ground beneath the dinosaur's head: both of her beautiful wings had been crushed in several places by something, and she was lying on the ground with her arms twisted at awkward angles. Her waist-length brown hair was splayed out beneath her blood-stained body, and her white robes had been torn in multiple places. The woman was still breathing, but barely.

It looked as though she had put up one hell of a fight to ward off whatever tragedy had befallen them.

"M-Mommy!" Kya wailed, leaping off Littlefoot's back and stumbling towards her mother. She stared with uncomprehending blue eyes when her mother simply continued to lie where she was on the ground, unmoving and bleeding badly; when the woman slowly turned her head and looked at her, Kya's blue eyes widened and she opened her mouth as an unbearable pressure built up inside her chest; however, for some reason, no sound could escape her lips. Shoulders shaking, the fifteen-year-old girl fell to her knees and frantically clutched her mother's hand, trying to find a way to do something. "Mommy, don't worry, I'm here! Everything's okay now... the earthquake is over!"

"Kyalliara..." Alexandria sighed, smiling weakly at her child. "I'm glad you're all right... I was practically crushed when the ground dropped away from us."

"Mother... Miss Alex... please, get up!" Littlefoot whimpered, trotting up to Slender-Tail and looking at the two women.

"I'm..." the female brontosaurus whispered, struggling to climb to her feet. "I'm not sure I can, Littlefoot..."

"Don't say that!" Kya shrieked, lowering her head and hunching her shoulders. "Don't give up! You have to get up! Please, get up!"

Slender-Tail slowly struggled to climb to her feet, but she collapsed back down when her legs buckled: the rock she was lying on shattered under her weight and her head came to a rest directly beside Alexandria, who slowly turned her own head to look at her. With a soft expression in her eyes, the angel slowly lifted her other hand and touched the dinosaur on the cheek: the two of them had become best friends over the years, and Slender-Tail had been injured trying to protect her in the fall.

It had been a struggle that had ended up being in vain, since both of them had been seriously wounded.

"We have to tell them..." Alex whispered weakly, hand slowly falling back down to the ground; she slowly looked back at her stricken daughter and smiled. "Kyalliara... since the moment you were brought here... you and Littlefoot have been closer than family, so I want you... to take care of each other... as a brother and sister should."

"Mommy, don't die! You have to get up!" Kya wailed, clutching her broken hand with frantic blue eyes and a terrified expression. "Please, get up! We promised we'd all make it through this together as a family! We all promised, so you can't die! You can't! You said you would always be here for me and Littlefoot!"

Kya stopped screaming when a hand touched her cheek.

"Don't cry, my darling," Alexandria murmured, smiling as a thick trickle of blood streamed out of her mouth and stained her teeth. "Don't cry for me..."

"Littlefoot... Kyalliara... my dear, sweet children," Slender-Tail whispered softly, "do you remember the way to the Great Valley?"

"I guess so," Littlefoot sniffled, looking at his mother with watering eyes, "but why do _we_ have to know? You and Miss Alex are gonna be with us!"

"We _will_ be with you," the brontosaurus sighed. "Even if you can't see us."

"What do you mean by can't see?!" Kya tearfully demanded, looking up at the dinosaur with large eyes. "We can always see you!"

"My baby..." Alex stated weakly, touching the girl's face with glazed blue eyes. "Please don't cry anymore..."

"Littlefoot... protect your sister," Slender-Tail whispered, slowly closing her eyes as her tail went limp. "Let your hearts guide you: they'll whisper... so listen closely... "

"We love you both," Alexandria breathed, muscles finally relaxing in Kya's grip; the girl's eyes widened and the tears streaming down her cheeks froze when her mother went completely limp. As an odd sense of reality came crashing down on her, the brunette was only aware of the sudden silence that descended over her mind.

"Mother?!" Littlefoot squeaked, looking at the two prone forms in front of them. _"Mother?!_ Miss Alex?! Don't go to sleep!"

"Mommy!" Kya wailed, shaking her mother's hand... however, there was no response: their mothers lay silent, still, and completely unresponsive to the world around. Just as they always would, from that moment on and clean into the depths of eternity: there was no way to bring them back... there was no way to give them life... there was no way for them to do anything... because there isn't a cure for Death. As the night continued on, only one sound split the monotonous sounds of the storm around them.

It was the echoing wails of two crying children who had been left alone in a hostile world.

**TXXXXXT**

The next morning, Kya woke up to find herself snuggled against Littlefoot's warm belly like she always did, but this time there was no warm greeting... no rough tongue to kiss her awake and elicit a fit of laughter. The girl's eyes instantly snapped open wide and she covered her mouth to muffle a cry of pain: almost instantly, her eyes began watering as the memories of losing her mother slammed into her and she slowly broke down into tears. However, she did her best to muffle them since Littlefoot was asleep: he had cried so much harder than Kya last night that he 'd exhausted himself into unconsciousness. Even after he had cried himself to sleep, tears had still been streaming from beneath his closed eyelids for another twenty minutes. Kyalliara was two years older than him, so she felt an odd need to shelter him from certain things.

That's why she'd decided to cry as quietly as possible.

However, her attempt was in vain: Littlefoot startled her when he set his chin on her neck and nuzzled her cheek.

"Don't cry anymore..." he croaked, sniffling as tears began running down his cheeks. "We'll... we'll be all right. We still have each other, so we aren't alone..."

Kya hiccuped as she fought to stop crying, but eventually she gave up the attempt and rolled over so she could hug him: the siblings cried together for almost forty minutes straight, but once they were done, they got up and aimlessly began to wander around. Kya had been using her mother's backpack as a pillow while she'd been sleeping, but now it was slung across her shoulders: regardless, the teenager didn't know how to use a vast majority of the things that her mother had always carried around. The girl knew how to read and write thanks to her mother's teachings, but that wasn't exactly an important skill since there weren't any books in the place she was living in.

All she had were her mother's journals...

Kyalliara's knee-length brown hair was disheveled and her mother's clothes were filthy, but she barely noticed: her sky blue eyes were miserable, and the only thing that kept her going was the fact that Littlefoot was walking beside her. However, he looked just as miserable as she did... which probably meant that the only thing keeping him going was looking after her. That thought spurred Kya into wiping her streaming eyes and looking at the sky: as long as they had each other, neither one of them would ever give up the will to live, so she was pretty much ready to face whatever came her way. The two of them were still unbearably miserable, though... and it was excruciating.

The sensation was an ache that had settled into their chests and made them feel almost completely empty.

Kya began to wonder if crying had become a permanent thing, since she and Littlefoot couldn't seem to stop sniffling or keep their eyes from watering.

However, it was around midday that it happened: Littlefoot and Kya were walking along a steep incline and the brontosaurus misplaced his right forefoot, causing him to lose his balance. When Kya saw what was happening, she grabbed his neck and tried to steady him, but he had already leaned too far out over the edge: thus, with two extremely loud cries of alarm, the unrelated siblings went sliding down the hill and crashed into a rock at the very bottom. Littlefoot landed hard on his stomach only a split second before Kya smacked into his tail, making him wince; the long-neck didn't really seem to have the will or the energy to move from where he'd fallen.

"Hey," the rock grunted, startling the brontosaurus into leaping off it with a gasp; he instantly huddled close to Kya, watching as the stegosaurus they'd landed on sniffed and turned to look at them with a suspicious expression in his eyes. He inspected them before tilting his head. "What's going on here?"

Kyalliara and Littlefoot merely huddled even closer together and tried to hide the fact that they were crying.

"What's your problem?" the old dinosaur grunted, looking more than a little irritated. "You're not hurt."

"It's not fair!" Littlefoot blurted, sniffing and glaring at the ground as tears filled his eyes. "That stupid old sharp-tooth! They should have known better!"

"Who should have known better?" the old one asked, cocking his head in perplexity. "Who do you mean?"

"Our mothers," Kya whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut as she burst into tears.

"Oh," the stegosaurus murmured, eyes instantly becoming sympathetic; he slowly looked at the ground. "I see... I see..."

"Why did I wander so far?" Littlefoot sobbed, burying his face in Kyalliara's dress. "It's my fault this happened."

"No, it's not!" Kya cried, flinging her arms around him and pressing her face against the top of his head. "It wasn't your fault! It... it was the earthquake's fault!"

"She's right: it's not your fault... nor is it either of your mothers' faults," the wizened dinosaur sighed, looking at them with knowing sea green eyes. "Now, you pay attention to old Rooter: what happened to your mothers is nobody's fault. The great circle of life has began, but you see... not all of us can arrive together at the end."

"What'll we do...?" Littlefoot whispered, pulling away from Kya and glancing up at him. "We miss them both so much..."

"And you'll always miss your mothers," Rooter agreed, nodding with a gentle expression as he looked at the crying girl and boy, "but they'll always be with you, as long as you both remember the things they taught you. In a way, you'll never be apart because you are still a part of each other..."

"My tummy hurts..." Littlefoot whined, setting his head in his sister's lap.

"Well... that, too, will go away in time, little fella," Rooter murmured, turning away and heading off with a somber expression. "Only in time."

The unrelated siblings watched as the stegosaurus made his way into the desert: both of them were wondering how long it would take for their pain to go away.


End file.
